Day Three - With a Little help from my friends :)

Another day another marathon!! The Journey took us to the absolute middle of nowhere & even beyond that - we drove for 130 miles & didn't see a building, a car, merely a couple of deer & endless fields. Bowman North Dakota is a little off the beaten track to say the very least. We arrived at 6 ish & were soon greeted by the newest member of Team GB Michael Grehan of Dunstable RR, a great guy & really enthusiastic about the journey ahead.We collected our numbers, T-shirts & Medals at the start - first time I have ever had a medal just for turning up - this is the medal to attach each of the 5 different state medals we'll receive each day - so by Friday we'll have like a really cool metal tie to wear :) Pre Race I had to make a delivery as I was bootlegging bottles of Spitfire from Back home to Sandy Stiner & her husband.Sandy was one of the first of the "Facebook Faces" I got to meet along with Rich Holmes of the 100 Marathon Club I previously met last year in Tulsa,OK. I was thinking 1.05 out & back for 12 times might be rather dull but it was anything but that & I loved it, got to meet so many great folks on the course, chatted & exchanged waves & high fives with various people. Paul Allen & Allan Rumbles will be pleased to hear that I greeted Mr Grehan at half way with "You're Shiiiitttt !" It's a local joke back home in England & merely in jest. He's a great guy & he paced a great race (unlike some folks around here in the past couple of days !!!) Big thanks to Garry Price from Pittsburgh for dragging me around for 9 miles before I realised he made some tough miles so bearable. Garry is doing the same as us but at the end of this month - He'll be flying across the Atlantic to take in the NFL & run a marathon, We are off to see the Broncos in Denver on Monday while he's flying into to see his team at Wembley, Fancy someone from Pittsburgh Supporting the Steelers ?!!! Team Enigma Running will make sure he's looked after at Chester the week after the game. I went out around about 10 minute miling pace (no choice the little legs wouldn't move any quicker !!!) & ran that sort of pace for around 17/18 miles (slower for bathroom breaks)then started to fade closer to 11's so grabbed my ipod & decided AC/DC was a great choice for some inspiration & it gave me a lift & I treated all the other guys to a full set list of AC/DC live - Lucky them ;) Mile 19 - 20 was heavily fuelled by Hells Bells by the previously mentioned Aussie Rockers, I got done in the last mile by an Aussie Runner, not often they beat the English at anything these days so I decided to give him his moment & to be fair Michel Spanked his arse (Metaphorically speaking !!)in the name of national pride - Michael also mentioned to the young man he'd love to go to Australia but as yet doesn't have the required criminal record !! The course was very rough gravel & shredded by best pair of runners so will make a judgement call on what to wear tomorrpw when seeing the surface ? A massage followed by my Mexican Recovery drink provide by my favourite sponsors (at Corona) & 150 mile drive through endless fields to finally reach civilisation at Rapid City, SD. Swim, hot tub & Steak dinner now beckon. Splitsville below :) 9:30 9:35 9:58 10:07 11:55 9:59 10:48 10:01 11:55 9:28 10:27 12:56 10:35 11:07 10:43 11:01 9:03 9:56 8:15 9:50 9:55 11:50 12:00 10:58 11:45 11:28 8:31 Apologies to all my American friends for correctly inserting U's into words - I'm English we speak English which means we're right ;) LOL !!! Same shit different day tomorrow - another State & I'll probably finish in a right state ?!!! Best wishes Foxy in the USA